Santiago de Compostela, 24 March 2022. Galician researchers, members of the INVIPESCA Network and affiliated with the Institute of Marine Research (IIM) and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) of the CSIC, have contributed to the book “Reproductive ecology and fisheries in the Ibero-American context”, published by the Ibero-American Fisheries Research Network — INVIPESCA Network — and coordinated by the Marine Technology Centre-Fundación CETMAR, which is responsible for the network’s technical secretariat under funding from the Xunta de Galicia through the Regional Ministry of the Sea.
The book, which brings together research results presented in the different editions of the Ibero-American Symposium on Reproductive Ecology, Recruitment and Fisheries (SIBECORP), organised by the network every three years, aims to compile the main research findings in reproductive ecology, recruitment and fisheries and the most significant advances made in this field over the last ten years.
It is aimed mainly at fisheries science students and researchers, although it is intended to be useful for anyone interested in the conservation and sustainable development of fishing activity in Ibero-American countries.
It is the result of the work of nearly thirty researchers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Portugal and Uruguay and of the work that the INVIPESCA Network has been carrying out since it was founded in 2009, with the mission of improving scientific knowledge and providing tools for the sustainable management of fishery resources in Ibero-American countries. Across its 216 pages, the book highlights the role of reproductive ecology through reproductive potential in fisheries management. Its seven chapters describe different aspects of the reproductive ecology of exploited species, as well as their influence on recruitment through the analysis of reproductive dynamics in pelagic, demersal, tropical marine, inland-water and estuarine domains and the reproductive dynamics of chondrichthyans.
The book closes with a cross-cutting chapter addressing parental traits and their possible influence on the reproductive potential of populations, exploring the role of parental effects, mainly maternal effects, which determine the productivity of different stocks and, consequently, their resilience, with a major impact on fisheries management.
“This book is a fundamental milestone in fisheries research in Ibero-America; firstly, because it is the result of collaboration among a large number of researchers from different institutions in eight countries of the region where fishing has major economic importance. Secondly, because this is the first time that a book of this nature has been published, in Portuguese and Spanish, focused on Ibero-American aquatic species and ecosystems. It is research carried out in Ibero-America and for Ibero-America, but of great relevance for the international scientific community,” says Rosario Domínguez, co-author of two chapters of the book and president of the INVIPESCA Network.
The publication, available for consultation and download from the CSIC repository (https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/255913), is a new knowledge tool intended for fisheries science and reproductive ecology students, fisheries researchers and the general public interested in the conservation and sustainable development of fishing activity in Ibero-American countries, the founding purpose of its promoter, the INVIPESCA Network (http://invipesca.cetmar.org/).